Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Ethernet switches have been certified by ODVA to meet CIP specs.

Red Lion Controls has announced its latest firmware for the N-Tron® series of NT24k® and 700/7000 managed industrial Ethernet switches has been certified by ODVA to meet the requirements of the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) specification.

With embedded support for CIP, this broad industrial Ethernet switch portfolio provides ease of communication for industrial markets that include manufacturing, automotive, electronics and food and beverage.

Industrial factory automation customers, in these markets and others, require a vendor agnostic method for configuring and communicating with diverse devices in their industrial network. CIP was designed for use in process control and industrial automation applications. CIP provides consistent device access, allowing a single configuration tool to monitor and configure CIP devices without the need for vendor specific software. Red Lion’s rugged NT24k and 700/7000 managed switches deliver information and configuration access directly to Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) through standard CIP messaging.

“CIP is an important tool to communicate across diverse equipment. Compliance certification provides vendor-independent assurance that CIP-enabled products comply with the specification,” said Diane Davis, director of product management, networking at Red Lion Controls. “This certification is just one more reason customers can trust Red Lion to seamlessly connect network infrastructures, linking the wide variety of devices common in today’s industrial environments.”

With reliable plug-and-play operation, IGMP auto-configuration and fast boot time, the rugged NT24k and 700/7000 managed industrial switches include standard EtherNet/IP and are designed to provide optimal performance and maximum uptime in the harshest conditions. Red Lion’s wide array of CIP-enabled managed switches, available in rackmount and DIN-rail mountable models, support a variety of port configurations and media types. Customers can now select from over 100 flexible configuration options that include 10/100/1000 Copper, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Fiber and Power over Ethernet (PoE).